High School Basketball State Championships

     The High School Basketball State Championships for men and women were hosted last Friday ( February 27th ), and Saturday ( February 28th ) at the Maverick Center. Many different schools (men and women) and leagues came to compete for the championship.

Men’s Teams and Scores:

   2A: Manti (60) and Emery (51)

   3A: Pine View (46) and Dixie (43)

   4A: Bountiful (66) and Kearns (54

   5A: Layton (48) and Brighton (46) 

Women’s Teams and Scores: 

   2A: Delta (45) and Kanab (37)

   3A: Juan Diego (67) and Morgan (47)

     Layton and Brighton played against each other, and even though Brighton was ahead by 13 points at one moment in the game, Layton came back for the win. “Layton was in need of a hero,” said Tom Wharton, witness of the win, and Fox News author. This hero was Senior Guard, Matt Cragun. “I felt like no one was taking over, so I stepped up and tried to be a leader,” Cragun said, after his 11 points in the second quarter. Layton Coach, Kelby Miller decided to switch his defense from zone, to man-to-man in the second quarter after the players begged for a change. 

     Juan Diego didn’t only win the state championships for women's 3A against Morgan, but they finished the season undefeated, and they have a story. Twins Monique and Dominique Mills (seniors) finished their season with a great final game. Monique finished with 25 points and 12 rebounds, when Dominique finished with 16 points and a couple of rebounds. “They both played their butts off, they made this happen. They were the leaders this year. They made all this possible,” said (Juan Diego’s first year) coach Josh Archuleta. They played in honor of Juanita Archuleta (The coaches mother who suffered and died from her fourth round of breast cancer). They also played in honor of Sarah Christensen’s mother, (Janine Christensen) who died from a “cancerous brain tumor”. They wore pink t-shirts to show their love and support for cancer survivors.

     Sadly, The PCHS Mens Basketball team was eliminated from the playoffs when they played Ben Lomond. The final score was 57-46, and they were not expecting it. The seniors (Reid Marks and Boston Van Der Veur) were sad to see the season end so fast, but thought they played well on their last game. Their final season record was fifteen wins and seven. 

     The Park City Women's Basketball team lost their first playoff game, 55-32 to Uintah. The first half of the game they were going strong, but the second half got much tougher. In the third quarter they outscored Park City, 16-5. Coach White claimed that they couldn’t get any sort of momentum going, which made them fall short. They were missing some of their best players, Hannah Shluker and Marina Mayo, but they thought they played even without them, although they could have used the help. The highest scorer was Jessica Perry with thirteen points, and next in line was Rachel Brothers with six points.